With all the excitement over the past few days of fights, news of Kenny Florian leaving Sityodtong Muay Thai and Mixed Martial Arts, sort of flew under the radar.

Long time trainer Marc Dellagrotte confirmed the split through an interview with Fighter’sOnly.com stating, “There are no hard feelings. Me and Kenny have been good friends for a long, long time. We did good thing together. I think this is a good decision for both of us. I think he is going to do well, I think the people he is going with are some of the best in the world. It wasn’t a bad break or anything like that, it was just a mutual decision we made in order for us both to move forward. It was necessary for Kenny to move forward with his career and me to move forward as a coach.”

_______________________________________"I'm like the superhero coming in with the anti-bullsh*t." - Nick Diaz

Rush »
Posted 1/31/07 10:42:00PM

Marks comments have to be the most cordial and profession words I have heard in such a situation.

Though, I don't understand what Kenny is doing and I suspect his career might suffer. That is, I don't like the idea of having Keith as head coach and it certainly didn't help him with BJ. His game plan was not the one I expected him to have. And it ended up failing big time.

Also, I don't get training with Firas Zahabi. I mean, the guy is supposed to be amazing (fighting and a good coach/cornerman), but to prepare for Clay Guida, I would think Kenny would want to work with some top wrestling guy(s). Otherwise he'll be on his back for the better of 15 min. and with another L to his record. I guess it's a question as to how much GSP will be at TriStar, and if he is there, how much wrestling will he be doing? My guess is not much.

isk »
Posted 12/5/07 12:38:00PM

I have two thoughts on this.

1) Why the split?

DellaGrotte explains it pretty clearly in the interview. His stance is clear, fair, and well-reasoned. I'm more curious about why Kenny decided to go with Keith as his cornerman. Is it a family thing? Is it for variety? Does he feel he's getting something from Keith that he wasn't from DellaGrotte?

Of course, I don't think we're entitled to know all this. Kenny's reasons are his own until any of us start funding his training or the like. It's just more information I wouldn't mind having.

2) Changing camps can be good

I think what we see with a lot of successful mixed martial artists is that they stay with the same camps out of loyalty, familiarity, and convenience. That's cool, it's a testament to an individual's integrity that they do this, but at the same time I think it hurts them as a fighter because it's harder to learn something new.

Okay, you roll on the mats with the same jiu-jitsu guys every week. You'll keep learn little things all the time, but a lot of it is that you learn to beat that person. The more guys you roll with, the more adaptable you become because you're used to seeing and countering different styles and approaches. This is in addition to the little things you learn over time with any discipline.

We only grow when we're challenged, and moving to a new camp is certainly a challenge. You gotta learn just how things go on there, plus you have a new gang of training partners.

It's hard to say atm what this'll do for Kenny. I think his biggest weaknesses are (no order):

-Striking power - he can beat up people but not really KO them-Speed - good evasion, but strikes and overall explosiveness could improve-Wrestling - sprawl has improved greatly, but his takedowns could use work

He's still really young, so he has the time to develop these if he chooses to do so. We'll see if the move to Tri-Star will help with that.

Jackelope »
Posted 1/30/07 10:59:00AM

I hope Kenny does well, and I'm glad Mark Dellagrotte is handling this professionally. I think Dellagrotte is one of the top 3 trainers in all of MMA, but changing things up and getting a new look can be helpful, so I guess in the end I support Kenny's decisions.

That being said, I don't think he'll ever get the title while BJ Penn holds it. He just doesn't have the power to finish Penn, always has to worry about Penn's powerful hands inside, and no matter how much BJJ he trains I don't think he'll ever be better than BJ on the mat. It's just a horrible style match up for Kenny. The only way I can see him pulling out that W is by staying out of danger and picking BJ apart from the outside... which I suspect is the gameplan Dellagrotte would have wanted to implement. Dellagrotte has the footwork coaching ability to get him there, and I haven't seen any other trainer who coaches footwork better.

Anyways, that is just my opinion on the matter. More power to Kenny, but IMO he made a mistake with his gameplan in his last match with BJ Penn, and his situation isn't going to change enough to win over BJ another time.

FlashyG »
Posted 2/13/08 10:33:00AM

Isn't Tristar in Montreal affiliated with Jackson's camp in New Mexico?

That must make things awkward with Guida training with Jackson and Kenny with Firas

Isn't Tristar in Montreal affiliated with Jackson's camp in New Mexico?

That must make things awkward with Guida training with Jackson and Kenny with Firas

The way I understand it is that GSP goes to NM for his fight camp (6 weeks or so before a fight) and prepares for the specific fight there. All other times he is either at Tristar or training elsewhere.

My hunch is Kenny is not officially training with GSP nor will be be coached or cornered by him, making any conflict of interest non-existent.

FlashyG »
Posted 2/13/08 10:33:00AM

The article was from January but it seems atleast then they were as close as 2 camps could me.

“Greg and I have a really wonderful relationship. We see eye to eye on a lot of things and consider ourselves one really big team. One big advantage of our relationship is we always have a ton of guys in the gym to train with,”

The article was from January but it seems atleast then they were as close as 2 camps could me.

“Greg and I have a really wonderful relationship. We see eye to eye on a lot of things and consider ourselves one really big team. One big advantage of our relationship is we always have a ton of guys in the gym to train with,”

I read an interview on BloodyElbow (I think?) earlier in which Kenny stated that he will ONLY be working with Firas Zahabi.

_______________________________________"I'm like the superhero coming in with the anti-bullsh*t." - Nick Diaz

Rush »
Posted 1/31/07 10:42:00PM

Posted by FlashyG

The article was from January but it seems atleast then they were as close as 2 camps could me.

“Greg and I have a really wonderful relationship. We see eye to eye on a lot of things and consider ourselves one really big team. One big advantage of our relationship is we always have a ton of guys in the gym to train with,”

Yeah, but I consider that unofficial. Just like BTT Canada guys have trained with a lot of Jackson's team. I'm sure they are all on good terms, but I think most of the inter team relationships are unofficial. If my assumption is wrong, we're still talking about Guida and Florian. If Guida has never come up to Tristar and trained with Firas, I don't see anything to fuss over.

emfleek »
Posted 11/18/07 4:54:00PM

Posted by emfleek

Posted by FlashyG

The article was from January but it seems atleast then they were as close as 2 camps could me.

“Greg and I have a really wonderful relationship. We see eye to eye on a lot of things and consider ourselves one really big team. One big advantage of our relationship is we always have a ton of guys in the gym to train with,”